Jim Goetz

James J. Goetz (born 1965/1966) is an American venture capitalist and businessman who is a partner at Sequoia Capital. Goetz is known for his focus on mobile and enterprise startups, including successful investments in AdMob, WhatsApp, Chartboost and GitHub. In 2017, Goetz announced he was stepping back from his leadership role with Sequoia, but continues to invest and represent the firm on company boards.

Early life James J. Goetz was born in Detroit, Michigan, and raised in the Midwestern United States, and attended the University of Cincinnati, where he received a B.S. in electrical and computer engineering. Afterward, he attended Stanford University and earned an M.S. in computer systems.

Career Goetz started a PhD, but chose instead to pursue a career in product management, with early stints working at AT&T and SynOptics,

Goetz became a vice president at Bay Networks, and Monty Kersten, In October 1998, the company agreed to be acquired by International Network Services. Following the sale, Goetz joined the venture capital firm Accel.

Goetz has been ranked on the Forbes Midas list of top 100 venture capitalists, and occupied the top spot each year from 2013 to 2017. In 2018, he dropped to number three. In 2015, Goetz was named "VC of the Year" at the Crunchies award show, hosted by the publication TechCrunch.

Major investments Major investments by Goetz leading to IPOs have included Ruckus Wireless and Palo Alto Networks in 2012, Nimble Storage and Barracuda Networks in 2013, and HubSpot in 2014. Clearwell Systems, acquired by Symantec for $410 million in 2011, Appirio's acquisition by Wipro for $500 million in 2016,

Goetz's most successful investment was in WhatsApp, in which Sequoia was the only outside investor prior to its acquisition by Facebook for $19 billion in February 2014. and it earned Goetz a reputation as one of Silicon Valley's "biggest rainmakers".

In 2021, Goetz donated $25 million to the University of Cincinnati. The gift led to the expansion of computer science faculty, the establishment of two athletic scholarships, the creation of an honors program, and the renaming of the school's engineering building to the Mantei Center, in honor of professor Thomas Mantei.

Personal life As of the 2020 Forbes Midas list, Goetz was married, with three children, and lived in Los Gatos, California.